"Our Communities Are Being Devastated, " Hershey, Penn. Factory Worker Says
In response to Sen. John McCain’s speech on trade policy this afternoon in Ottawa, Canada, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee and Calvin Smith, a factory worker from Hershey, Penn., to call for fair trade policies that lift up workers here and abroad. They denounced McCain’s plan to continue the Bush trade policies – which McCain detailed today -- that have led to the loss of millions of American jobs and an erosion of workers’ rights around the globe.
“Instead of delivering a speech from Ottawa, Canada, Senator McCain should visit Ottawa, Ohio, where the Phillips plant closed,” Brown said. “We need trade policies that create new jobs at home, not ship them to Mexico. We need a new direction, not a third Bush term.”
Today in Ottawa, McCain reiterated his strong support for “free trade” at any cost, despite the job loss and growing wage inequality exacerbated by current U.S. trade policy. In his speech, McCain defended NAFTA saying it is “critical to the future of so many Canadian and American workers and businesses.” In fact, flawed trade deals like NAFTA have contributed to the loss of more than 3 million manufacturing jobs since 2001 and an erosion of real wages. McCain told workers in Michigan in April that he believed those good jobs are gone and “not coming back.”
McCain’s record in support of the failed Bush trade agenda shows he’s pandering to multinational corporations, often at the expense of working families, Lee said. McCain has been an ardent supporter of NAFTA, CAFTA, normalized trade relations with China and pending deals with South Korea and Colombia, a country in which more than 2,500 trade unionists have been murdered since 1986.
“John McCain has never seen a trade deal he didn’t like, even though the consequences of those deals for workers in America and around the world have been dire,” Lee said. “Unfair trade has led to millions of America’s workers being forced into the unemployment line and erosion of workers’ rights and living standards in our trading partners. It’s time we chart a new course on trade that benefits American workers and domestic producers, yet Sen. McCain is offering working families more of the same job-destroying policies.”
Calvin Smith, a machine operator at the Hershey chocolate factory in Hershey, Penn. for 18 years, said his plant has cut 650 jobs this year, mostly due to outsourcing to Mexico. Those who remain at the plant have been forced to take pay cuts and shift changes just to keep their jobs. Smith and other workers at the plant don’t know how long they’ll be able to keep their jobs before they’re outsourced as well.
“Every day I wake up and worry I’ll be told my job is being shipped off to another country,” said Smith, a member of Baker, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union (BCTGM) Local 464. “I’ve seen so many of my friends and neighbors forced out of their jobs by these rotten trade deals. Our communities are being devastated.”
While trade is vital to America’s success in the global economy, we must have policies that strengthen workers’ rights and ensure that global trade is benefiting everyone, not just multinational corporations, Lee and Brown said.
Earlier this month Brown introduced The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act.
The TRADE Act calls for a long overdue comprehensive review of U.S. trade policy. This bill also outlines a new U.S. trade strategy—one that puts a priority on the interests of working class Americans, farmers, the environment, and domestic manufacturers.
A replay of today’s media call with Sen. Brown, Lee and Smith is available beginning at 3:30 ET. For access, please contact the AFL-CIO Media Outreach Department at 202-637-5018.
Contact: Steve Smith 202-637-5018
